Emmys 2013: Who Should Win Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series? Take Our Poll!

Can lightning strike twice (in a row) for Homeland‘s Claire Danes? That’s the central question looming over the 2013 Emmy race for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series.

In order for Danes to take home a bookend statuette, she’ll need to beat a deep and crowded field of six fellow nominees, including a quartet of newcomers to the race: Scandal‘s Kerry Washington, Nashville‘s Connie Britton, Bates Motel‘s Vera Farmiga and House of Cards‘ Robin Wright. (Britton, of course, has been in the race before — in 2010 and 2011 — but those nods were for her role in Friday Night Lights.)

What would you do if you had the power to honor one of these fine actors when the Emmys are handed out? Take our poll below to vote for your favorite — TVLine voting closes Sept. 20, so act now! — then hit the comments to justify your pick!

Tomorrow, we’ll launch another “Who Should Win?” Emmy poll, so come back to TVLine.com every day to weigh in on who’s most worthy of TV’s biggest honor. And to stay up to speed on all our Emmy polls, follow me on Twitter @MichaelSlezakTV!

I think with the material given to these actresses, Claire definitely deserves the win again. I think everyone else in the category is talented– especially Robin Wright, but to be honest I’m surprised she’s in the LEAD actress category and not supporting. On a side note I have never bought Kerry Washington’s act so I guess she’s the one I feel should not win :/

I think it’s Clarie’s to lose as well. I love SCANDAL and adore Kerry Washington and think it’s one of the BEST roles for women on TV right now…she’s just not EMMYworthy. Nice meaty role…just not EMMYworthy.

All of these ladies are phenomenal but Kerry Washington has been stellar on “Scandal” – and it would be nice to see a network drama get some love since all drama categories have been dominated by cable in the last handful of years.

This category is definitely a race between Vera Farmiga and Clare Danes based on their episodes submissions.
In vera’s episode, she gets raped, kills a man, and apologizes to her son for being a bad mother. So yeah, there’s some serious range here.
In Danes’ episode, she has basically 30 minutes of airtime just her and Damien Lewis. And, she won last year, but to be fair, for most of that 30 minutes the camera’s on Damien even while she’s speaking.
Kerry Washington can be an upset. She won’t be getting the emmy for her episode, since it wasn’t that great of an episode. But, she’s only the fifth black woman nominated for a best drama actress and they might want to finally give it to one.
All the others have small to no chance of winning to be honest.

Please, If any one is overacting and has stupid expressions it is Claire Danes with her performance of someone bipolar. The Emmy should go to Vera or Kerry who are central to their shows and honestly cover a range of emotions.

Tatiana will get her chance next year since her show premiered late in the race.

I’ve watched every single episode of Homeland and yes, Claire Danes overacts to the point that she is almost unwatchable. I sometimes wonder if all of the people that heap praise on her actually watch the show or just mimic what others are saying. I think the SNL skit was perfect. Also, just because someone doesn’t like something doesn’t make it a “hate statement.” It makes it an opinion.

I read this and just knew at least a good third would be “screaming” Tatiana Maslany” even though she’s not nominated. Should she have been? Yes. IF she was, should she be a front runner? Again, yes. Was she? No. And since the main question is who should win, we all know who it won’t be because she wasn’t nominated. Personally, I would to see Kerry win it since she’s the lead on the show and she had a better second half than people give her credit for.

And since we’re just throwing out names, Julianna Margulies got straight up robbed by not being nominated… IJS… :-)

I don’t watch most of these shows. The only one I’ve really watched is Nashville but I don’t think the role of Rayna James was good enough for an Emmy, no offense to Connie Britton–the real Emmy-worthy lead performance on that show was that of Hayden Panetierre (surprisingly enough since I actually never thought much of her acting previously). Tatiana Maslany deserved to get a nomination at the very least and her lack of one kind of taints this category somewhat. Therefore I’ll give my vote to Claire Danes, based on previous works I’ve seen her on. I just recently noticed that Homeland was added to Netflix in Canada so I should be into it shortly.

None. Stana Katic from Castle. Of course, when I was growing up, Emmys went to regular network shows that were immensely popular with middle America (shows like Cheers). Now they rarely go to network shows. They go to cable shows that may or may not be in everyone’s cable tier.

I’d love to see Connie Britton win although she probably won’t. Beside the fact that she should hav won an Emmy already for FNL and maybe for AHS she is great in Nashville. It’s the singing and playing basically 2 diffrent parts in one – a larger than life superstar on stage and an ordinary yet very complex woman outside the stage, her talent and her style of acting makes it look so easy as if she doesn’t act. This is why people may think it’s not an Emmy worthy part. But the truth is that to play that part takes a lot of acting (not to mention singing part). Unlike some of the other actresses nominates she never over do anything and she is just believable and conviencing in everything she does on that show (and in general)

Stop the whining about who wasn’t nominated. Maslany will hopefully be recognized now that more people are aware of the show. It was on no one’s radar and the critics got behind it too late. As for the current noms, Farmiga could win if people watch her work. Washington has an outside shot because of the increase in the show’s popularity. If Emmy voters are lazy and don’t look at the other work, then Danes will win even though she did nothing new this last season.

Kerry Washington is one of the most engaging, magnetic actresses I’ve ever seen on TV. Yes, the show is over the top (which is what I love about it) so if Kerry didn’t play Olivia with the level of intensity that she does, her character would get completely lost. You may not appreciate this style of acting, but that doesn’t make it any less impressive. She breathed life into this flawed character and made Gladiators out of many Scandal viewers. I find myself wondering if there’s anything this woman CAN’T do.

I don’t know how anyone can watch Scandal and not think that Kerry deserves an emmy. Olivia is someone everyone should hate but because of Kerry we actually love and empathise with her if that is not emmy worthy then I don’t know what is.

I watch Scandal, and don´t think Kerry should even be nominated, let alone win! And I don´t love or empathise with Olivia neither; I like the show for the stories and cases that get to the Gladiators (well, at least when they are the focus), but I hate the soapiert part of it…

I am not sure if you actually do watch this show and if you do watch when you started (jumped on the bandwagon ) or what reasons you have to watch it (to judge the morality of show), but to say that that when the show focuses on the gladiators is better is untrue. They have cases that they solve every week like every other show on T.V from CSI, to criminal minds, these shows are a dime a dozen,. What makes Scandal different from these shows is the so called “soapiest part of it” namely the relationship between Fitz and Olivia and the devestating consequences of that relationship. kerry sells Olivia like no one else can and the majority of the fan (if not you ) does empathise with and love her. We may not agree with all her choices but we do love her and if it were any other actress many of us would not feel that way and for that reason I will reiterate that she deserves the emmy. She may not get the best material from the writers but she works her a$$ and does a wonderful job.